Hi Guys, was wondering if you could help me

Bought a 1991 AUTO TR Magna with 160,000 K's on the clock last year, and it's a really nice and reliable vehicle (so far) apart from one problem..

When I start to drive it, after about ten minutes or so this horrible dead fish smell starts wafting through the air vents.

This has only been happening the last six months or so. I don't get out much due to social anxiety so the car has been sitting around for a while.

I was just wondering if anyone could perhaps help me to solve this problem. Don't know much about cars...was just hoping there is something simple I can do to fix it (thinking of just some glen 20 or something like that, but I'd prefer to fix the problem)

Cheers everyone.

by the sorunds of things there abit stail water in your car somewhere

could be a heater unit leak

check for wet carpet and green coolant inside the car

Could be a dead fish in the air vents? Not common but it does happen.

Could be a dead fish in the air vents? Not common but it does happen.

indeeed

Could be a dead fish in the air vents? Not common but it does happen.

lol!!!

yeah check your footwells for wet carpet, and coolant. Does sound kind of like your heater core is leaking, or cehck your boot for leaks. Even get a bucket of water throw it on your boot etc and then look for leaks. Ie glass seals, in door jams, etc

Could someone that doesn't like you have filled the hub caps with prawns?

Or a real idea - maybe part of the car was treated with fish oil to try and protect against rust. If this was done near the exhaust, it might be 'activated' by the heat off the exhaust and that's when it gets on the nose.

Stale water from leaks are definitely good things to look out for though, very common issue on my wife's Toyota is for the heater matrix to fail and dump coolant into the passenger footwell.

Good luck!
Oggy.

Yes I agree with the others sounds like your heater unit is leaking. OR It could be a slight chance that your drains are blocked. When I say that I mean when you run your air con the condensation runs out from the cooling coils inside your dash.. I may be wrong not sure how the Magnas work but most cars have the cooling coils that have condensation that collects and needs to run off through little drains. These drains can get blocked and you will get a build up of water. I know it's not that hot at the moment but this water can take a while to smell. I hope that makes sense. I have had this happen to me before in a FORD. It smells like cat piss. I had to get some wire and unblock the drain tube.

seriously check the Catalytic Converter for a, or remains of a fish, either on or around it, i pulled this prank on a mate a while back and it does exactly what you described :D
because it takes a while for the cat to heat up the smell doesnt hit them for a few mins :D ahah
if thats what it is you won't get it off but you might be able to stop the smell

Being myself a fisherman i know all too well the smell of dead rotting fish.
The sickly sweet smell of warm or hot coolant does indeed smell alot like rotting prawn, pilchard or yellowtail bait!

My TR had issues with the coolant hose leak i found at the firewall hose connection to the air cond unit (heater core connection from memory). This caused it to overheat alot until i eventually found the leak. Just a very small pin hole leak.

What this caused was for coolant and moisture inside the passenger side footwell. Rubbing hands across the carpet confirmed it. Checking for coolant leaking from hoses whilst the car is running might help, if you have a pin hole leak.

Are you having to top up the radiator much lately?
Overheating issues?
Using the Air conditioner unit at all when you smell this.

There is something fishy about all this talk of fish and 2nd gen Magna's!! LOL

Hope you fix the smell trouble and its not something expensive.